Smart Environmental Machine
Overview
This project demonstrates the design and development of a portable, real-time indoor environmental monitoring device that integrates multiple sensors for CO, CO₂, PM2.5, temperature, humidity, light, and sound. The device features reactive graphical outputs and user-friendly interfaces designed to be informative and accurate.
The thesis explores how invisible environmental data — the air quality in a room, the light levels, the ambient sound — can be made perceptually present through real-time audiovisual feedback.
System Architecture
Seven sensor streams feed simultaneously into the system:
- CO — carbon monoxide concentration
- CO₂ — carbon dioxide concentration
- PM2.5 — fine particulate matter
- Temperature — ambient °C
- Humidity — relative humidity %
- Light — lux level
- Sound — ambient dB
Arduino handles sensor polling and serial output to a Mini PC. TouchDesigner receives the serial stream, parses the sensor values, and drives the visual output layer in real time.
Design Philosophy
The core idea was to make a health-sensing environment that doesn’t feel like a clinical instrument. Rather than a dashboard of numbers, the output is graphical and reactive — data shapes the visual field. A spike in CO₂ changes the visual texture, not just a readout.
This tension between legibility and affect — how much should the data speak plainly versus speak atmospherically — ran through the entire project.
Technical Report
The full BEng thesis report documents the sensor selection, circuit design, firmware, TouchDesigner patch architecture, and evaluation methodology. Download below.